Cons
No monthly plan or on-site service. By-the-minute plan fixes only what you ask for, without checking for other problems.

Bottom Line

This service provides quick PC hardware and software support by the minute or in $99 tune-up packages. The smart, knowledgeable, friendly, and efficient staff gets right to work on your concern without using your minutes on unrelated issues.

Got a computer problem? You might get the answer from YourTechOnline (YTO) without spending a dime. Not only does the site offer a Q&A section, a forum, a glossary, and a help knowledge base, but for a minor problem, the accommodating staff will suggest fixes before you've plunked down a credit card number. The service is 24/7, and you can either purchase minutes of support, starting at $49 for 30, with bulk discounts for larger time chunks, or buy a service such as spyware cleaning, or an upgrade to Vista. It's remote phone and online help only: No Geek Squad-style house calls hereand no scheduling headaches, either. The timed service takes a targeted approach to cleanup, answering only your specific questions, so less-technical users should probably opt for a package instead.

In testing for this review, I went with the by-the-minute option. Each time I called the toll-free number, after a simple automated choice, I was speaking with a knowledgeable person inside of 2 minutes. The first time I called, the friendly, well-spoken, tech-savvy rep made a suggestion for my problem and I paid nothing. Whenever I called, the techs were generous about not starting the clock until they'd actually started attacking my problem: I wasn't, for example, charged for the time it took me to describe the problem. Also, the minutes you buy with YTO are usable over multiple support sessionsbetter than Firedog's policy of one session per purchase. The YTO reps were also careful to ask me to close windows containing private information before taking control.

After my first call, in which I got free advice, I went back to the site to actually sign up for paid support, using the one-page form asking for all the usual credit-card payment info. Getting a tech on the phone required nothing more than giving the operator my e-mail address, which I'd entered into the sign-up form.

Since I was going to have to go through my questions one at a time, I thought I'd start with a simple one: The DVD drive wouldn't open. The tech suggested two possible causes: a loose wire in the back of the drive or a dead drive. He asked whether I was comfortable taking the case off to check the connections. I said I was, checked the connection, and reported that everything was snugly attached. The rep then asked permission to take control of my PC and did so using a quickly downloaded and installed screen-sharing application, GoToAssist. YTO claims that this process is safe, encrypted, and cannot be used again without your permission. In any case, if you're worried, you can always uninstall it later. I did.

The tech was able to reassign the drive-volume letters of the primary hard drive and the optical drive, which I had named E: and C:a setting that could, and did, cause problems. After the drive letter reassignment, the DVD drive still didn't respond when its door-open button was pressed, so the tech said "Sorry, you'll have to buy a new DVD drive." But after I rebooted, the DVD was fully alive, so he'd actually solved the problem. He got full points for solving the problem, but it's troubling that he didn't think to tell me to reboot.

He did, however, miss something I thought would be obvious: eAcceleration's StopSign Anti-Virus, a dubious security program I had in the system tray. He also failed to notice that my system tray displayed the yellow shield icon with an exclamation point, which Windows uses to show that something's amiss with your security settings. The failure to address this may not necessarily be a bad thing: That wasn't the issue I'd called him about, so why waste my minutes with issues I hadn't requested help for? While I suppose you could justify the oversight by claiming that this wasn't a problem I'd ask to have solved, the tech should have mentioned it to me as something to look into. I challenged the service specifically with these problems in a later call.

I also wanted to check out the service's support via instant messaging, so for a problem concerning a Word 2007 advanced setting, I started by logging in to the YourTechOnline Web site. I clicked on User Home, which created a secure https connection, then clicked on the bright red Open New Case button. That produced a six-step form on which I reported that Internet Explorer wasn't responding. After submitting the form, I clicked on the Start Online Session button, but my test PC shut down before I could interact. The incident actually provided useful information, though: The next time I logged in, the Open New Case button had changed to "Resume Active Case," indicating that my problem was being kept track of. People from YourTechOnline also called me to see whether the problem had been resolved (it hadn't been at that point). I was pleased to find that each time I made another call to test the service, the tech helping me knew my support history.

After my system shutdown, I rebooted and started up YTO's live-chat program created by Crafty Syntax. The support person quickly found the Word setting and resolved the problem. The chat interface was perfectly adequate, but the tech suggested that a phone conversation would be preferable. He didn't insist I make a call, as Geek Squad did. I prefer this ability to deal with PC problems without the phone, in case you're in an environment where you don't want to disturb others around you or you don't have access to a working phone or a cell signal at that moment.Next: Hunting Down Spyware

Michael Muchmore is PC Magazine’s lead analyst for software and Web applications. A native New Yorker, he has at various times headed up PC Magazine’s coverage of Web development, enterprise software, and display technologies. Michael...

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